Story Question

So today I thought I'd talk about the first step of building a plot according to Mr Butcher, the Story Question.

Let me quote liberally here from Mr Butcher himself:

The story skeleton (also called a story question) consists of a simple format:

*WHEN SOMETHING HAPPENS*, *YOUR PROTAGONIST* *PURSUES A GOAL*. But will he succeed when *ANTAGONIST PROVIDES OPPOSITION*?

I find this really helpful in getting the basic jist of the story down - it works as well for the snowflake method in creating a basic sentence describing the story, though with the Butcher method you end up with a longer sentence (I aim for less than 50 words).

It is especially useful in getting a handle on your protagonist's goal, but also the various obstacles you're going to throw in his way.

So for my story, The Legacy of the Thorn, what is the story question?

When his colleague tries to kill a visiting dignitary, secret service operative Jonathan Marlowe sets out to find out why. But will he succeed when he finds himself pitted against his own former colleagues, a global conspiracy to hide an ancient secret, and the ultimate evil herself...

Obviously, this will make a hell of a lot more sense to me than anyone else, but it sets out the basic situation at the beginning, as well as the different things he is going to have to face.

Lots of work done on the plot today, have started filling in Jonathan's plot in more detail and have started sketching in Ana's as well - I'm going to follow Mr Butcher's advice and create a character page for each of my characters, as well as a plot summary for the key ones (Jonathan and Ana, but also the bad guy and a few of the more important secondary characters).

Tomorrow I'll talk about creating the first and last scenes, and what Mr Butcher calls the Big Middle!

Currently Reading:
The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruis Zafon (still!!!)
The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown (still!!)

Listening to:
Tenth Wonder Podcasts for the most part - you guys rock!

Watched:
Heroes s04e04 and 05
Leverage s02e01 (so cool)
Fringe s02e03 (great as well, though I'm still waiting for Leonard Nimoy)

Looking forward to:
Have decided to watch Dollhouse season 1 all the way through and see what all the fuss is about
Supernatural's next episode